Madrid

Navarra published its own short-let law in the official gazette on 28 July under foral civil-law powers that Madrid does not hold, and the same day Spain's national housing decree slipped to September. The capital therefore depends on national legislation, which suffered another defeat on 2 October when deputies refused to validate two rent decrees.

Madrid's courts keep a continuing role in enforcement. On 23 March the High Court of Justice of Madrid refused to suspend a €64m fine imposed on Airbnb over unlicensed listings and false registration numbers, so the largest platform penalty in Spain stays live while the platform's appeal proceeds.

In March 2026 the Spanish government in Madrid refused the United States access to its bases during the Iran campaign. Washington ordered the Treasury to cut off Spain, Iran publicly praised the decision, and Spain deployed an air-defence frigate to back the refusal.

The standoff resurfaced on 24 April, when a leaked Pentagon memo suggested removing Spaniards from senior NATO jobs and dropping US backing for the Falkland Islands as punishment. A Pentagon spokesman declined to deny it, and the leak landed as EU leaders met in Cyprus, pulling the dispute onto the European stage.

The Madrid-based Observatorio Cubano de Derechos Humanos published on 4 August an itemised breakdown of the 1,949 acts of repression it had logged across Cuba in the first half of 2026: 91 targeted Independent journalists and 50 were retaliation against relatives of political prisoners. Havana dismisses the group as a Miami-linked advocacy outfit rather than a neutral monitor.

The half-year total, published from Madrid on 7 July, included 299 actions in June alone, 257 of them arbitrary detentions. The count has risen every month this year, giving the city's best-known Cuba rights monitor a steadily worsening dataset.